February 2, 2003

by Joel Derfner

This afternoon I overheard the following conversation on the subway:

BLACK GUY (to WHITE GIRL dressed in faux Black Girl Outfit): “You know, because of the state of the country, the way things are and stuff, your parents owe my parents some shit. Like 40 acres and a mule. But you can make up for it by buying me a drink.”

FIRST BLACK GUY: “I should just walk around Wall Street giving people invoices. ‘Here, I’m from the Corporation of the Freedmen’s Bureau, and you owe me 40 acres and a mule.’ I should go to NBC and give them an invoice. ‘You owe me 40 acres and a mule, or equal value. I’ll take a sitcom deal.’ I’d sure as shit be funnier than David Alan Grier.”

A faux Black Girl Outfit is an outfit worn by a non-black girl that a) screams “I am cool enough to be black!” and b) I have never seen an actual black girl wear. In this case it involved a bandana, a messy hair knot, and some sort of skirt-type thing with patches.

I’m not sure I had a precise point other than that there was enough condescension and misappropriation of history and smugness and mental muddiness going on here to make my head spin.